Light InSight — alien productions / Joseph BEUYS / Evelina DOMNITCH & Dmitry GELFAND / Nina FISCHER & Maroan EL SANI / FUJIMOTO Yukio / Ingo GC NTHER/ Bengt SJC LCN & Adam SOMLAI-FISCHER with Usman HAQUE / Jochem HENDRICKS / Mischa KUBALL / Anthony McCALL / Nam June PAIK / TAKATANI Shiro; Curated by: SHIKATA Yukiko :: December 6, 2008 - February 28, 2009 :: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] Gallery A, Tokyo Opera City Tower 4F, 3-20-2 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Light InSight exhibition offers new perspectives on the past, present and future possibilities of the existence of “light”, here investigated from the perspective of perception, beyond art and science. Light is the most basic of media. Not only in visible light’s relationship to our daily functioning, but in that light fundamentally enables the very existence of so much in this world. The living orgasms and environments of the earth form and their ecosystems are maintained by their relationship with solar energy. Throughout human history, light, beyond its role as a necessity for our physical beings, has been continually reinvested with powerful new significance by religion, science, and philosophy. In the arts, especially since the development of optical devices in the Renaissance, light has served to organize visual systems and new artistic expressions, starting with the laws of perspective derived from the “camera obscura”. And of course in the Enlightenment, light was seen as a direct metaphor for aspiring towards knowledge and apprehending the world.

From the 19th century, light was redefined as a spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, and optical technology has since developed, with the appearance of electricity, whether visible or invisible, natural or artificial, to be firmly fixed throughout our lives. In the context of art, though of course people have been experimenting with optical arts and technologies throughout history, light has taken on particular importance as both material and medium since the early 20th century. Now in the 21st century, with the advent of digital technology, optical devices are widely used in many fields, whether in nano- and bio-technology, communications, moving images, entertainment, education, or medicine.

Now, given this historical context, how can we best exercise the potential of light in the future? In this exhibition, we introduce experimental works and projects with unique visions of concept, phenomena, and process, in which the viewer can experience the transformation of our senses and physical perceptions afforded by the continuous expansion of optical and light technology. One work may refer to the existing visual system while at the same time critically undermines it… another may expose the viewer to deviations in their senses via light… or another might visualize light in a way which had not existed before… In each case, the dynamic experiences themselves, that you experience viscerally and psychologically, these will emerge as the “works” on view.

The “Light InSight” exhibition will provide an opportunity for the viewer to question anew the significance of seeing, vision, and sight through light, and to obtain new insights.